What is on the MCAT?

The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is a standardized multiple-choice graduate entrance exam used across the United States and Canada for admission to a medical college or university.  The MCAT measures a students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills, as well as their knowledge of certain scientific concepts.  Students are required to take and perform well on the MCAT in order to apply for admission into any medical school; however, other factors, such as academic records, are also examined prior to a student’s potential admission.

The MCAT is divided up in four sections:

• Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Sciences (59 multiple-choice questions)
• Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (53 multipe-choice questions)
• Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems (59 multiple-choice questions)
• Psychological, Social, and Biological Functions of Behavior (59 multiple-choice questions)

All of these sections, except for Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills, are based on 10 foundational concepts, or “big ideas” in the sciences and include material from Biochemistry, Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Psychology, Physics, and Sociology.  The Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills section requires students to analyze and understand certain passages that does not require using scientific knowledge.

The first section of the MCAT is the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Sciences, in which students need to complete 59 multiple-choice questions in 95 minutes. This section will be in the form of 10 passage-based question sets in which there will be 4-6 multiple-choice questions per set, and 15 independent questions.  Students will need to use their knowledge in Biochemistry, Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Physics in order to answer these questions correctly.

The second section on the MCAT is the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills, in which students need to complete 53 questions in 90 minutes.  This part of the exam will consist of 9 word passages, each having 500-600 words.  There are 5-7 multiple-choice questions attached to each passage, in which students will use their knowledge of humanities and social sciences, as well as their critical thinking and reasoning skills, to analyze, interpret and dissect the information.  These passages are sometimes presented in a convoluted or biased manner, which forces students to use their critical thinking and reasoning skills to scrutinize the multiple perspectives of the passage.

The third section on the MCAT is the Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems, in which students need to complete 59 questions in 95 minutes.  As in the first section, this section is divided in 10 passage-based question sets where there are 4-6 multiple-choice questions per set, as well as 15 independent questions.  Students need to use their knowledge of Biochemistry, Biology, General Chemistry, and Organic Chemistry in order to answer questions that pertain to organizations and processes of living organisms.

The fourth section on the MCAT is the Psychology, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior, in which students need to complete 59 questions in 95 minutes.  As in the first and third sections of the MCAT, this section is also formatted in 10 passage-based question sets, in which there are 4-6 multiple-choice question per set, and 15 individual questions.  For this section, students need to use their proficient knowledge of Biology, Psychology, and Sociology to answer questions correctly pertaining to behavior and its changes, social and cultural differences, and sociocultural determinants of health.

Students will be graded on their correct answers, as there is no penalty for guessing on the MCAT.  Students will be given separate scale scores on each of the four different MCAT sections.  This scale score ranges from 118 to 132 for each individual section.  A student’s overall score is the sum of the 4 individual scale scores, giving an overall total of anywhere between 472 and 528.  Percentiles are released and updated yearly on May 1st, giving student’s an idea of how well they performed when compared to other test takers in that year.